This invention is particularly addressed to the need for environmentally-friendly, mild, readily biodegradable, sugar-based surfactants that may be used in industrial applications, such as detergents, personal product, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and dental compositions. This invention is also directed to the need of preparing alkyl aldonolactone esters regioselectively in high purity and good color.
The demand for mild, environmentally friendly surfactants has been steadily rising. In general, most detergent, personal product and dental compositions contain surfactants based on petrochemicals. Since these materials often have handling, storage and environmental hazards associated with them, it is desirable to use surfactants which are derived from agriculturally-grown materials such as carbohydrates. These naturally-occurring compounds represent a source of renewable raw materials that are readily available, inexpensive, biodegradable and optically pure.